How to Stop a Worry Wart
A Children's Sermon
Philippians 4:6
By Dave Redick
How many of you ever worry? (show hands)
Can you make a face that looks like someone who is really worried? (Let the children make faces that show they’re worried.) I have a worry face, too. (Make a funny worried face for the children.)
What are some things you worry about? (Help them if necessary with suggestions like sick pets, grades on a test, whether they’ll get in trouble for something they said or did.)
Do you know what God says about worry? It's found in Philippians 4:6: "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs, and don't forget to thank him for his answers." TLB
From this we learn that God doesn't want us to worry. Worry is when we feel miserable about future things, things we cannot do anything about.
But it's hard not to worry! In fact, sometimes I find myself worrying too much.
When I was young my mother used to call me a "worry wart." No, I wasn’t really a wart. I was a person. But I guess I did worry a lot. A worry wart is someone who worries a lot, and since that's what I did, I had to learn how to stop a worry wart.
Today I don't worry like I used to. Do you want to know why? I've learned to pray instead! That’s right. When I start to get all torn up about something and start to worry, I quickly find a place where I can get alone with God and I tell Him about it and ask Him to help me deal with it, either to take it away or to help me get through it. Then I set the worry aside. That's how you stop a worry wart.
One of my favorite verses is 1 Peter 5:7. It says, "Let [God] have all your worries and cares, for he is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you." TLB
And did you know that God knows what you are worried about even before you start to worry about it? Wow! That’s really cool. So it doesn't matter weather it is big or little. And He will help you not to worry if you will go to him in prayer. Will you do that?
Let's pray about our worry right now. J
Dear God,
Sometimes we worry about things and it makes us feel really bad. We understand that in your word You say that we shouldn’t worry but we find that we do it anyway. We ask that you would help us learn to trust you so that we don’t have to worry anymore. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.
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All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.